


Smarter Than She Looks

by arcadesintheneighbourhood



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, High School, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 12:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcadesintheneighbourhood/pseuds/arcadesintheneighbourhood
Summary: How Eleanor's love of learning changed through the teachings of Chidi Anagonye.Inspired by the 1.10 quote in Eleanor's epiphany: "And he tilts his head whenever I say anything ignorant. But he never makes fun of me, which is nice."





	Smarter Than She Looks

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this drabble on Tumblr and I thought The Good Place fans on AO3 would enjoy!

Eleanor’s always been pretty smart.

She reads when her mom is on the couch sipping Chardonnay, and when her dad is watching football, stoned out of his mind. She finishes her times tables in 4 minutes flat, and her middle school teachers sing their praises at parent teacher conferences.

(Too bad her parents aren’t sober enough to understand)

In eighth grade, her teachers recommend her for the honors classes in high school- geometry, english, biology.

But then her fourteenth birthday hits and she can’t stand it anymore. She hands her parents the emancipation papers. She buys her own apartment. She has to survive by herself.

She begins working night shifts as bartender. Yeah, she started bartending when she was 11 so she’s good at it, and they start giving her more shifts. The bills stack up. She works. The rent check is due. She doesn’t have time for homework anymore. She’s falling asleep in class.

The teacher cold calls on her. She stammers out an answer. Incorrect. Everyone in the class laughs. The teacher scolds her for not knowing the answer. Jessica raises her hand and announces in a snotty voice, “The answer is Pakistan, Eleanor.”

She slumps down in her seat. She tries to pay attention again but she can’t. She doesn’t have time for the work, the material, the rigor, and she has more important things to worry about. She needs to work. She needs to eat.

She stops trying. She adapts a defensive persona. She claims she doesn’t care about learning, or reading, or all that nerd stuff, so why bother? She sleeps in class on purpose. She blurts out ridiculous answers in class. She passes with Cs at the end of the year, which is perfect. It’s just good enough to move on to the next grade, but not good enough to be in honor classes again next year. It’s just what she wanted. Now she never has to hear the students whisper about how dumb she is, or complain when she’s placed in their group project, or wonder how she even got into the class.

That’s why when Chidi first starts teaching her ethics, she refuses to do the work. She knows she can read that David Hume book, she knows she enjoys listening to him ramble on about Aristotle, but why bother? He was just going to make fun of her if she asked a dumb question, just like how the teachers did in ninth grade.

But she sees how hard Chidi tries. He sacrifices his own time to plan lessons for herself everyday. He offers, without Eleanor’s plea, to give up more of his time to teach Jason too, even though he’s more of a lost cause than Eleanor. And so she tries. She reads the David Hume book once, then once again, and when class begins the next day, she has a million questions.

“Hey, page 50, line 3. Are you sure he’s not talking about masturbation?”

And as soon as she blurts it out, she regrets it instantly. He was going to make fun of her, she was sure. It was the fifth time she had asked that question in class. He went to the Sorbonne and taught the most intelligent students in Australia and conversed with the some of the best scholars in the world. There was no way he didn’t find her question stupid, that he wouldn’t ridicule her in front of Jason, the dumbo.

But he tilts his head and his mouth opens a little as he smiles at her. His eyes are shining and his smile is kind, and Eleanor feels like swallowing just a little from his warmth.

“You know,” Chidi pauses thoughtfully “He just might be. Why don’t we take a look? Jason, can you take out your book?”

And all of the sudden, for the first time since she was fourteen, Eleanor loves learning again.


End file.
